A section of Rift Val­ley lead­ers yes­ter­day told Mom­basa Gov­er­nor Has­san Joho to keep off the af­fairs of Deputy Pres­i­dent Wil­liam Ruto and con­cen­trate on the fight against the il­licit drugs busi­ness.

The more than 20 lead­ers from Keri­cho and Bomet coun­ties ac­cused Joho of say­ing the DP is a “land grab­ber”. “As the sec­ond-in-com­mand in the coun­try’s lead­er­ship, the DP has the right to tell Kenyans about lead­ers with ques­tion­able ed­u­ca­tion back­grounds like Gov­er­nor Joho,” Belgut MP as­pi­rant Nel­son Koech said.

They were re­act­ing to an ar­ti­cle in which Joho was quoted as hav­ing crit­i­cised Ruto for re­fer­ring to him as an “aca­demic dwarf”.